Gibson Gibsonette GA8, beautiful.

[ScottJPatrick]

not mine or anything to do with me, just putting it out there.

(link removed)

 

[simonsp]

Nothing to see here. Move along now.

 

[ScottJPatrick]

were we going to look forward to a NAD post from Hampshire? Hope I didn't cost you a few £'s!

 

[simonsp]

To be truthful, I have been watching it quite closely all week (same seller has a lovely '60's Vibro Champ). I'm slightly put off by the US power supply but if the bidding doesn't go crazy I may have a punt.

 

[TheRumRunner]

At 200 quid it seems to be a solid deal. Lets see where it ends at.

DW

 

[t-luxe]

Those late '50s-early '60s Gibbys are great. Many were basically clones of the Fender amps of the day and are way more affordable. I believe the GA8(the one with 6v6s) is similar to the 5F2A Princeton. I bought a '60 GA18T
(Basically a Tweed Vibrolux)for cheap and its one of my favorite amps.

 

[ScottJPatrick]

the 240/110 transformer was already mounted onto the inside of the cab on my GA19RVT when I bought it, doesn't look great but you generally don't see it anywayand I never had a good enough reason to do anything about it. If the OT ever goes I will replace it then.

 

[jhundt]

I've got one just like that, only a year or so later - the name is changed to "Discoverer" to cash in on the 60's satellite craze. I left it behind in a studio somewhere, one of these days I must go around and collect it.

 

[purpletele]

I have a slightly earlier one that cosmetically looks more like a wide panel Fender tweed.

It's an AMAZING sounding little amp.

 

[backalleyblues]

502 GBP... Yikes!!!

A buddy of mine has the Discoverer version as well-GREAT harp amp! His has the 12" speaker, so a tad more bass in his tone...

Franc Robert

 

[Santiago]

I have the 1958 more wide-panel version, without tone control but otherwise identical. In mine the original power transformer was gone, so I got a new one wound up for UK and EU use. I also got the 10" Jensen speaker re-coned after it developed a buzz and it improved the sound a lot, it must have been fairly knackered when I bought it.

It's a very nice amp. The circuit is "parallel single-ended", which means that the two 6V6 valves do not work in push-pull. So it is class A, like a louder tweed champ with a great dirty overdrive. If you play it clean, it has a natural, non-hyped tweed sound to it.

Another cool feature is that this circuit does not require matched valves, so you can mix and match different 6V6 valves to get the overall sound you want. At the moment I have a rather bright Brimar and a weird coke bottle french 6v6 with a darker sound, they combine together nicely.

I have also heard great things about the GA6, a similar gibson amp that is push-pull (it has a further 12AX7 as a phase splitter) and is apparently a bit like a Fender tweed deluxe.

 

[Thedirtygirls]

Hey there just wondering if you could share the specs of your transformers? I'm keen to build one of these bad boys!